Hooded Eyes: A Cheat Sheet

Thank the lord more information has come out over time about hooded eyes because when I first worked out that I had hooded eyes do you know what people were still calling them? Aged eyes. Now while there’s nothing wrong with having aged eyes, I wasn’t really thrilled with the idea of having aged eyes at only 15.If people didn’t refer to them as aged eyes they would call them ‘droopy’ eyes or something equally as bad. Now they’re called hooded eyes which I mean, isn’t all that much better and it kind of makes it sound like your eyes are about to rob a bank but hey, I’ll take it.

I used to hate the fact that I had hooded eyes but now over time I’ve worked out that all they need is a little extra lovin’. It’s all about the tips and tricks and once you realise that there are certain things that just make hooded eyes look a whole lot better, all of a sudden they don’t seem so bad.

So if you’ve got hooded eyes, this is the guide for you.

How do you know if you have hooded eyes?

I’m gonna give it to you straight, if you put your eye shadow on and it looks awesome while you’re applying it but then it completely disappears under your eyelid skin when you relax your eyes, then welcome to the hooded eyes club. If with relaxed eyes you look into the mirror and your mobile lid isn’t visible, congratulations again, you have hooded eyes.

Change up your techniques.

Despite what you may hear in general makeup tutorials, I’ve found that if you have hooded eyes you need to change up the ‘rules’ a bit. One trick that I’ve found really handy is to keep your eyes open when you’re using eye shadows to do any crease work. When defining your crease, if you blend right into your natural crease your shadows will just get lost so try blending slightly above your natural crease line to minimise the ‘hooded’ effect. So look straight ahead in the mirror and I repeat, keep your eyes open while running your eye shadows through the crease, that way you can see exactly which parts of your eye makeup will be seen and which parts of your eye makeup will naturally end up being hidden when you relax your eyes. When it comes to mascara I try to find the absolute best lengthening formulas I can find because I think long lashes can make a tremendous difference to hooded eyes. Technique-wise, I’ve found concentrating my mascara on my middle lashes (just above the pupil) to give me a more wide-eyed effect.

I’d recommend: The *Charlotte Tilbury Full Fat Lashes Mascara. It has one of my favourite formulas, is easy to build up, gives you great length and curl and most importantly it doesn’t smudge on me at all. I feel like having hooded eyes makes you more likely to experience panda eyes just purely because when you relax your eyes your mascara is basically touching your upper eyelid all the time so lengthening and smudge-proof mascaras are a must. Would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a good lengthening mascara but especially if you have hooded eyes and you need a little extra oomph from your mascara.

Opt for matte shades.

Not to say that you can’t or shouldn’t wear shimmery eye shadows if you have hooded eyes because honestly do whatever the hell you want, but I’ve found that neutral matte shadows are the best friend to anyone with hooded eyes because they can fake the natural contours of your skin and make your eye shape look very different to how it does naturally. Sometimes I’ll use matte shadows and do my usual ‘hooded eyes but better’ look and people will compliment me but not think I’m wearing any eye makeup. Then when I don’t wear it the same people are like “gee, you look a little tired.” Makeup is magic baby, magic, and matte shadows are my wand.

I’d recommend: My go-to matte palette at the moment is the *Burberry Complete Eye Palette in Mocha 02. It’s a mix of neutral, very natural brown tones that aren’t too warm or too cool, which I love. Each of these shades are pigmented and blend really easily and they wear well throughout the day as well. With 1 bone coloured shadow and 3 gradient brown shadows, the shades in this palette are perfect for every day and I think this would suit just about any skin tone. PS- the Burberry eye palettes come in velvet pouches as well….um, yes please.

2. With the lightest, tan brown shade from the Burberry palette I work this shadow all through the crease and slightly above my natural crease, using a fluffy brush to diffuse the shade and to make this shadow look like it’s the natural shadow of my crease.

3. I take the medium brown shadow from the palette on a fluffy blending brush and work it slightly above the outer third of my crease and down onto the lid to give my eyes a little more depth.

4. Taking a smaller, more precise brush with the darkest brown shade I carefully place it just at the very outer edge of my crease. Looking straight ahead in the mirror, I take any fluffy brush again and blend out that shadow.

5. After curling my lashes, I take the *Charlotte Tilbury Full Fat Lashes Mascara and concentrate it on my middle lashes, making sure I layer the mascara at the very tips of the lashes to give me the most length I can possibly get.

So who else out there has got hooded eyes like me?! Do you have any tips?

ah a fellow hooded-eye gal! it's such a pain especially when you're watching endless tutorials on youtube only to re-create and it either disappear or just look like a hot mess on our eye shape. I'm sure one day I'll get the hang of it aha, love that Burberry palette! xx

Love your comments about how they used to call hooded eyes aged eyes, it's so true and made me laugh. Maybe we can all come up with a better name for hooded eyes that will catch on ( like Guilliana on E with her amazeballs) What about soft eyes? ?The Burberry pallette looks like it has beautiful colours and I think it looks like a really versatile and handy palette to have.I really appreciated this post it had lots of helpful and clearly written application techniques for my soft eyes 🙂 I will keep all your points in mind when I do my eyes tomorrow.

I have never thought about it – I don't wear eyeshadow that much because it is another step in my routine…I think I may have them… Maybe that is why I don't bother with eyeshadow.I love burberry beauty – the fresh glow features in my latest post.Kiri Set to Glowhttp://www.settoglow.com.au